Has anybody had an issue where the screen that shows the city (not the UI, just the background) goes straight to black. I've had that happen 4 times today, and it's quite frustrating. Any help would be appreciated.

I've had this happen to me quite a bit when trying to build a road. Certain roads like the medium density street will turn the screen black when clicked but only that one so far. I found it helps to exit the city and return to the main menu and then resume the city again. Works just fine after that. Maybe it's not the same problem your having but in case you run into the problem I have had, you'll have an idea of what works.